It’s safe to say this generation of consoles got off to a slow start. As a PlayStation and Xbox owner, it’s hard for me to argue that the Series X/S or PS5 are absolute, cold “must buy” system sellers. Halo Infinite ended up being a bit of a wet wipe, and I just didn’t like all the over-the-shoulder, hidden-in-the-grass flicks that Sony exclusives like to tout. I don’t think the new God of War is that good, really. Xbox also needed something more than Forza to show off the capabilities of its machine.
However, that’s not to say that the current generation doesn’t have games worth mentioning. The Last of Us Part 1 had some great moments (thanks largely to the incredible lighting engine), and some big action sequences in Halo: Infinite fit the Master Chief fantasy. Return is still a hit, Demon’s Souls is a great remake, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is gorgeous. But, for the most part, I think we’re still waiting for the proper watershed moment that marks the beginning of this generation at last.
But there are oases in this intergenerational desert of prosaicness. One of them has just been made available for free on PlayStation Plus. Horizon Forbidden West Of course it has its issues, but it’s definitely an excellent graphics engine that really showcases what the PS5 can achieve on a good day. Whether you’re standing on a rocky outcrop watching the clouds melt into mist in the sky, or admiring the way a campfire lights up the soft peachy fuzz on Aloy’s face, I can’t get over the beauty of Forbidden West.
When I reviewed the game last year, there was one moment in particular that stood out to me: Entering a new settlement — one that makes its home in an upturned satellite dome of an old comm array — you wander through fields like a farmer tend their crops. For me, it’s dusk, so everything is this fiery red. Strips of warm light shot from Aloy’s ginger hair, and the sun streaked across the sky, piercing thick cumulus clouds.
A friendly machine approached me, and I could tell it was friendly at first glance—clad in the cloth and weaving of the townspeople instead of the shabby wires and worn-out mechanical parts of the savages of the wasteland—to I showed off the game’s great graphics for more than just show: the developers at Guerrilla know how to use visuals for gameplay.
This isn’t the first time a game has done this and it won’t be the last: there are many examples of designers taking advantage of the incredible Decima engine to create a visual language in games – using flashlights and light sources to illuminate underwater passages, using shard blues or The yellow pipes highlight the climbing routes on the abandoned towers… as a design tool, it’s a bit rote, but how good everything looks in Forbidden West makes the technology look new again. Aloy’s world invites you to take a closer look, be inside, and see the dirt under your fingers.
Of course, with all of that said, the game also launched on PS4–so it has some unnecessary constraints. However, the future is bright: the upcoming Forbidden West DLC, Burning Shores, is a PS5-only joint. This means that Guerrilla’s developers don’t need to wrangle a PS4 version in their pipeline, and can properly focus on wringing all the value out of PS5. This DLC will take us to the overgrown and fragmented city of Los Angeles, which can be fully explored by flying through the water or by flying on the back of a Sunwing (really showing off the asset streaming tech we’ve already heard, thanks to the PS5’s SSD) .
So, if nothing else, you’ll want to finish the game and get ready for the DLC release in April – there’s certainly a worse way to pass the time than staring at Aloy’s impressive hair and jaw-dropping vistas amidst the ruins Way, beautifully reclaimed America.
Horizon Forbidden West is now available for free on the Extra and Premium tiers of PlayStation Plus. You can read our review of the game here.